Empowering Women Entrepreneurs: Sarah Mae Ives Shares Her Path to Success in Social Media Advertising

Sarah Mae Ives is a trailblazing online business owner and Chief Ads Strategist who left her corporate job in 2017 to pursue her dream of entrepreneurship. She built a successful online advertising agency that manages tens of thousands in monthly ad spend, and has delivered life-changing results for clients, with some achieving million-dollar launches and up to a 48X return on investment. 

Sarah’s clients have been featured in top publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur, and Good Morning America. Today, she mentors women globally, helping them create profitable online advertising businesses and find the security and freedom that comes with happy clients. Her journey exemplifies the power of pursuing new ventures and finding personal and professional success.

How did you get into the business of social media advertising and what motivated your shift from a corporate career to entrepreneurship? 

I got into the business of social media advertising quite by accident. I had been unhappy at my desk job for years, and had been playing around with other business ideas. I hired someone to manage my social media and ad campaigns, and through that experience, I discovered just how valuable ad management skills are. I developed a real passion for it and eagerly dove into learning everything I could. 

I just loved solving problems and helping people figure out how to get more leads and sales with effective ad campaigns. I love working with businesses and helping them to grow their clientele. It feels very empowering and purposeful and the bonus is that it’s highly creative as well so I’m never bored.

Where did your passion for helping businesses achieve growth through social media advertising come from?

I honestly think it really goes down to God putting a dream in our heart or maybe even it's a blend of God and genetics. I come from a long line of business owners, and talking about business and strategy has just always been something that I have done with my family. I truly wish that my dad could've lived to see where I am today because I know his mind would have just been blown by the expansive growth we've had. I like to think that maybe he is somewhere and watching this right now. 

But overall, I really feel like it took me years to learn and understand that I wasn't weird because I didn't fit in at work. I wasn't weird because I hated water cooler talk and hated all my bosses who were just trying to slot me into a checkbox on their HR list. In my 30s and 40s, I’ve come to realize that a big part of this incredible life journey has been discovering my deep passion for business, helping others, and teaching. I don’t know where the heck it really came from, but it drives me every single day and I never get bored. I truly don't feel like I'm working.

What is something unique about your agency that sets you apart from other firms in the industry?

Something unique about my Ad Agency, and also my mentorship program for aspiring ads managers, is the unique onboarding process that I practice and teach for our clients. Because we have this unique and proprietary approach to onboarding new clients in that first month, clients also feel like they're getting the bonus of extra consulting for their ad campaigns, better results, and overall happier and longer-lasting clients as well as better expectations. I really feel strongly about the value of this type of onboarding process, where we sit down with a client a few times to really make sure we fully understand who they are, what they want to achieve, and how they're helping and contributing to the world.

Reflecting on the past five years since launching your agency, what has been the most rewarding moment for you?

Over the last five years of running my agency, I've had the honor of helping hundreds of businesses improve their social media advertising, resulting in more leads and sales for those businesses, and that on its own is a huge feat. I would say in addition to that, one of the absolute most rewarding bonuses of this journey is that I got the opportunity to start mentoring people on how to start more profitable ads management businesses. 

I truly feel that the online business space, in particular, is a cutthroat environment with many people waving "shiny objects" around, claiming to know what you should do for your business. I take pride in educating women on how to start smarter businesses, so they don’t spend years floundering as I did when I was first starting. That for me is the most empowering and rewarding part of my journey—my ability to give back by showing other women, the ropes and hopefully helping them avoid a sinkhole of a business that eats up their time. Instead, they are on a path to a business that gives them freedom, purpose, and money.

What are the pros and cons of a career in digital advertising and online entrepreneurship?

The pros of this business model are probably too many to mention. We get to work from home. We get to work with amazing clients, and we get to do fun, creative work like choosing pictures for ads and playing around with actually writing the ads. Mind you, not every agency owner likes to write for ads or choose photos, so of course these things can be given to another team member. The most rewarding parts of my business are the freedom, and the money—because you do get paid what you're actually worth—and I actually just love the creative process of creating ads and launching them out into the world to see if they work and if they work great. If an ad isn’t performing as expected, we analyze it to identify improvements and make strategic adjustments to turn it into a successful marketing campaign.

Getting results for clients is an incredibly rewarding and fulfilling feeling as well. I feel proud of showing my children a different way of operating in the world and of giving them possibilities beyond a conventional 9-to-5 job that they feel like they have to do. So even though I created this business out of a desperate desire to spend more time with my kids, the icing on the cake is that I get to demonstrate a different type of life for them, a life that I feel like is truly exceptional and that I feel grateful for living. 

Naturally, there are still cons of working in the digital marketing space. It can be tough on some days, especially when you're working with clients and you're spending their money. Some clients will present more challenges than others, and it can be tough when an ad campaign flops. This, of course, is the nature of the business, and it's not really a reflection on performance but more an indicator that messaging or the angle of the ad campaign needs to be optimized. It can definitely be difficult, but it’s also a fun part, solving the puzzle to make it perform. 

Like any new business, it can be difficult to break into the space, especially if you’re starting without support, but that’s why we’ve started an internship program – to help new business owners find success, surrounded by the right community. The con that probably gets the least attention is the idea of working from home which presents its own challenges. There is the danger of overextending yourself, not taking breaks, or taking care of your health, and sometimes the loneliness of being an entrepreneur at home catches people off guard. As I’ve grown in my business, I’ve learned to maintain my health and get out socially, and overall, this career change has been incredibly rewarding, keeping me active and engaged. I really think that contentment comes down to deciding what you want your day-to-day life to look like. If you’re passionate about what you’re doing, you’ll find a way to move past the cons and embrace the adventure.